• Private cars have more prestige than a bus.yellow car, a honda japanese sport car model image by alma_sacra from Fotolia.com
  
  Ecological issues such as climate change, the importance of recycling and ocean pollution have been getting a lot of press in 2010. Some people take these things very seriously and work hard to make themselves and their communities more sustainable. However, not everyone is willing to make an effort to go green.
  
  

Inertia

• The human mind is a complicated beast, but it often works in predictable ways. People tend to repeat what they have done before. According to a recent study done at MIT, habits become hardwired in the brain as a means of accomplishing tasks. In the midst of daily habit, a person may be presented with a reason to change that habit (such as a pressing environmental issue) but she doesn't want to change because change would require increased thinking, effort and innovation. Therefore, a certain percentage of people will continue to do what they have done before, no matter what that is.
  
  

Fear

• Many people realize at some level the importance of decreasing the human impact on the planet, but they are too frightened to confront the issue directly. This is understandable; if worst case scenarios actually come to pass, they would be very frightening indeed. This lack of action based on fear does nothing to help the situation, but in the short term a fear-based denial of the problem and a focus on other matters reduce personal stress.
  
  

Comfort

• Many of the things that are damaging the planet, such as private cars, air conditioning, food flown halfway around the world, and heated and cooled homes, are very comfortable for those who own them. They offer pleasure and luxury, and people like them. Many people are unwilling to give up immediate, personal comfort. By convincing themselves that there is not a problem, they allow themselves to continue enjoying their personal comforts and luxuries.
  
  

Propaganda

• There is a large, well-paid advertising industry dedicated to convincing the public that there is no environmental crisis; its purpose is to protect the profits of its clients, the companies who are propagating the crisis. This denial is an easy sell to those who want to believe it. The combination of an industry willing to lie and a public willing to believe it creates a dynamic in which people enable themselves to avoid going green.